Tim Hortons launches national pizza to 'extend the brand from afternoon to night'

Tim Hortons executives and chefs have eaten thousands of flatbread pizzas together over the past few years.

There were savory options, while others asked for a flavored butter to be added to the base and were designed to determine which combination of cheeses would determine the “carving wow factor.”

The fast-food chain's goal was to hit restaurants this week, creating flatbread pizzas that would satisfy their youngest and oldest customers alike, but it had a deeper mission: to take lunch to the door in addition to breakfast.

“We're really strong in the morning … but we saw that opportunity was there in the afternoon,” said Tims chief marketing officer Hope Bagozzi, sitting in a test kitchen in Toronto on a recent evening.

“For a player of our size, with a single-digit market share, this afternoon can't capitalize on the potential.”

Tim Hortons is hoping to change that after a two-year flatbread pilot with the national launch of cheese, pepperoni, “all bacon” and chicken Parmesan varieties on Wednesday, a month before its sixtieth anniversary.

The launch marks Tim's entry into a crowded but important corner of the fast food market. Canadian restaurants named pizza the sixth most-ordered food in the country last year, along with panzerottis and calzones, accounting for 4.5 percent of restaurant revenue.

Most of it is sold in the afternoon or evening, a period that research firm Circana estimates accounts for a quarter of all quick-service restaurant visits.

“There's only so many people that can serve them in the morning, but there's some efficiency with the capacity and taking people at other times of the day,” said Vince Scabellone, food industry analyst at Circana, before Timms' announcement.

“Every operator has their peaks, whether it's Tims or something else, and they try to fill other times of the day.”

Seated next to Bagozzi, Tim Hortons President Axel Schwann said Tim's journey to fill the gap with flatbread pizza began a few years ago after a small but powerful change to boost its breakfast offering.

Fresh eggs were introduced, Boston cream donuts got more Venetian cream, and apple fritters got more fruit. Coffee cup lids have even been redesigned to reduce spillage and increase stability.

Schwan sees this as the “first step” in the company's journey to “pursue new opportunities.”

The second step came when Tim's began looking for “white space opportunities” in its extensive menu of baked goods, drinks and sandwiches, Bagozzi said.

“We've been figuring out where we want to go for years, so we took it easy and spent the afternoon thinking about where we could extend the brand beyond what we expect from Tim's today.”

Managers always saw flatbread pizza as the ultimate menu item, but took a long-term view by launching wraps and bowls first.

While the bowls and wraps attracted customers during weekday lunches, Tim's decided they were ready to cater more to afternoon and evening diners with a flatbread pizza that they felt was more weekend and family-friendly.

He has traveled to Winnipeg, Calgary and Mississauga, Ont. has been testing potential flatbread pizzas for two years in markets such as — one of its longest pilot periods in recent history. and learned a lot.

“I love spices. I thought it was going to be a home run, but it wasn't,” Bagozzi recalled.

“We took it back and said, 'Maybe drinking the spice all at once isn't the right way to launch.'

There were also logistical challenges. Tim's employees assemble the sandwiches but don't knead the dough, and with a consistently high profile in the quick-service industry, adding a new over-the-counter station can be expensive.

Tim's solves these challenges by shipping sandwiches to stores and stocking its sandwich stations with squeeze bottles, shredded cheese and other toppings so they can be made to order.

And then there are the people who can be persuaded to open their wallets. After all, Canadians aren't starved for choice when it comes to pizza, lunch or dinner.

“I think obviously anybody that's in the food space is going to compete with us for guest visits,” Bagozzi said.

But in some ways Tims has an advantage. It's built into the daily routine — people visit on business trips and see it as a convenient place to feed their kids after school — and it has an extensive chain of restaurants, meaning Canadians don't have to go far to grab a scone.

“Whether you come for lunch or dinner or on the weekend, I think we're well located,” Bagozzi said.